By Eric Schmidt: Since losing his World Boxing Council/World Boxing Organization middleweight championship last September 29th, by 7th round TKO to undefeated knockout artist Kelly Pavlik (32-0, 29 KOs) at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Jermain Taylor (27-1-1, 17 KOs) has made a lot of changes to avoid that happening again, starting with signing on for their rematch to be fought at 166 lbs rather than 160 lbs, giving Taylor a little more power with which to work against Pavlik. Previously, Taylor, 29, had complained that having to strip down to 160 lbs had weakened him to the point where he wasn’t at his full strength.
By coming in at 166, Taylor, it would be hoped, would come in stronger, perhaps less likely to run out of gas like he did last time out when he seemed to fade after missing out on a knockout in the 2nd round. Then, Taylor let go his trainer Emanuel Stewart, signing on his old trainer Ozell Nelson, who started training Taylor when he was 13 years-old. The move was seen by some as a disparate attempt to re-capture his fading youth, as Taylor appears to be losing his power and stamina in recent years, which is generally an indication of aging.
In Taylor’s case, he’s still young at 29, but in boxing, like all sports, a fighter can sometimes began showing signs of aging at a relatively early period in their life. Against Pavlik, Taylor had him in trouble in the 2nd round, knocking him down, and battering him for most of the 2nd round. However, Taylor quickly found himself in an exhausted stated following the 2nd round, and was only able to fight in spurts for their remainder of the fight.
In contrast, Pavlik, 25, seemed to get stronger as the rounds went by, and in the 7th round, he was just far too strong – and fresh – for the tired out Taylor to deal with. To ensure that he won’t run out of gas again, Taylor has moved his training camp from the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania to Las Vegas, where it is hoped that Taylor will work harder. It seems somewhat illogical to me, for Las Vegas would seem to have a lot more distractions going for it than training up in the mountains where you have only the wilderness rather than people to deal with.
However, Taylor seems to be on the fight track, because when a loss as devastating as he experienced to Pavlik occurs, it’s essential that every move be made to change things, making sure that no stone is left unturned. At least that way, Taylor can remove all such items as an excuse should he lose again in the future. As for stamina, I see this as a problem for Taylor, something that he doesn’t have much ability to change even with the most strenuous of training.
Taylor had problems in which he would fade even in bouts with Bernard Hopkins in 2005. That seems to be a built into him, especially when a fighter, such as Hopkins or Pavlik, apply a lot of pressure on him. Taylor faded against Winky Wright in their June 2006 fight, losing many of the later rounds to him. It seems that the only time that Taylor doesn’t tire out in his bouts is when he takes on a fighter that stays on the outside, allowing him to chose when and how much he wants to mix it up.
Unfortunately, Pavlik isn’t the type of opponent that will allow Taylor to get away with this style of fighting. Indeed, Pavlik will force Taylor to fight for his life by coming at him constantly from round one, throwing endless bombs as he tries to take him out with every shot. Taylor will find himself using up his energy early on, whether he likes it or not. Ideally, he should focus on two strategies: One, Taylor can try and box Pavlik, using his jab and movement to stay on the outside to keep from getting pinned down like in the first bout.
If Taylor stands in front of Pavlik, bad things are likely to happen because of the fact that Taylor can’t throw hard shots as long as Pavlik can. That’s not to say that Pavlik throws any harder than Taylor, for I see them being almost identical in terms of strength, but rather Pavlik can retain his power for much longer than Taylor can. Two, if Taylor finds that he is unable to box Pavlik, for whatever reason, then Taylor needs to go all out like he did last time and try to stop Pavlik in the first six rounds of the fight. It’s a risky strategy, I know, but if Taylor’s legs aren’t good enough to keep him moving for 12-rounds, he’s going to need to stop, and try to fight it out tooth and nail with Pavlik.
I, for one, don’t see Taylor as having nearly good enough stamina to keep moving for 12-rounds without quickly tiring out, and losing by knockout. As such, I think Taylor needs to go out swinging from the first round, and try to ambush Pavlik from the get go. If anything that Pavlik isn’t expected, it’s for Taylor to go all out in the first half of the fight and try to knock him out.
Believe me, if Taylor can retain enough energy to punch well for six consistent rounds, I see him knocking Pavlik out. Last time out, Taylor could have easily have stopped Pavlik if he’d been a little more accurate with his punches after hurting him in the 2nd round. Taylor needed to be a little less wild and more focused on landing with precision. All it would have taken was a couple of well aimed punches and Pavlik would have been out for the night.